


Receptor Mediated

by NeurotropicAgentX



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Animal Death, Biochemistry, Deception, First Time, For Riot at Least, Masturbation, Other, Rare Pair, Xeno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-08-27 21:35:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16710460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeurotropicAgentX/pseuds/NeurotropicAgentX
Summary: Riot prefers taking over a host completely and not having to deal with a true symbiosis, but Drake needs to stay intact for the plan to work. It is unprepared for Drake, who doesn’t have the sense to be afraid. Riot is equally unprepared for the complex flood of chemicals that make up the human experience.





	Receptor Mediated

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my editor for her invaluable assistance.

This was not the first time Riot had lied to a host. Most of the time it was unnecessary. Riot was good enough that it could take over most species in seconds. Sometimes it took minutes, but that was when Riot was in the mood for a fight and wanted to feel its host struggle uselessly. On rare occasions it needed a host’s cooperation. Persuading a host was harder than a brute-force takeover, but most creatures were easy enough to ensnare with promises of the heady power symbiosis could bring.

Forming at least a partial symbiosis with Carlton Drake had been necessary, Riot reminded itself. It needed Drake intact so he could behave normally around his human underlings. Pretending to be a host after a full takeover was unbelievably tedious. Getting Drake’s cooperation had been pleasingly simple. Even more than power, Drake craved a way to save his species. So Riot had offered that. It had even shared a story about its fragile people, desperately seeking their own way to survive in a cold, hostile galaxy. The cruel irony of it sent a shivering amusement through Riot. More importantly, it now had Drake’s complete and eager support. 

Unfortunately, it also meant it couldn’t feed off this host. Here was an optimised food source sitting at Riot’s cilia-tips and it couldn’t sate the hunger that had been growing for the past day. Riot had kept quiet while Drake had eaten revolting dead things, knowing that the alternative was _negotiating_ with the host. With _prey_. The thought burned Riot’s pride. Even now it couldn’t quite bring itself to ask, but it swirled irritably beneath Drake’s diaphragm and coiled around his pancreas, letting its agitation flow as a cascade of signals into Drake’s body.

‘Riot?’ Drake subvocalized, even though they were alone in his office. Riot could parse the low vibrations in Drake’s throat without any outsider being able to hear him. It was a good technique. Subtle. And Riot wasn’t so wrapped up in itself that it couldn’t recognise that. 

**I can’t live off your human food,** it admitted. 

Surprise and sharp concern seeped from Drake’s emotional centres, followed by a strong uptick in curiosity. Riot didn’t like the sour, acidic taste of the surprise, but the curiosity had a pleasant edge to it. ‘My apologies. What do you need?’

**Fresh meat.**

Drake inclined his head in a barely perceptible nod. ‘Fresher than I’ve been eating? Do you mean raw?’

Riot swirled around itself tighter to prevent any further leak of its emotions into Drake. It didn’t want its disgust at the dead things Drake had been eating to be too obvious and it certainly didn’t want any of its hungry eagerness for live prey seeping through. Humans weren’t carnivores and had enough prey instinct in their hindbrains to make them skittish.

 **Living meat,** Riot clarified tersely.

Drake made a considering noise in the back of his throat. He sounded more fascinated than repulsed. ‘Some sort of compound, or maybe compounds, with short half-lives. Structures that degrade quickly. And of course your digestive system can’t be that extensive. Something as sleekly optimised and streamlined as a symbiote wouldn’t have the enzymatic machinery to synthesise essential components from simpler building blocks. Very interesting. It shouldn’t be hard to isolate the relevant compounds and see about manufacturing them so you’re not as reliant on an inconsistent food source.’

Riot stilled for a moment and some of its surprise leaked out into the host body. It hadn’t been listening carefully to the things Drake said, but the flashes of his thoughts about chemistry were intriguing. Drake didn’t have the intuitive grasp of a symbiote. He didn’t experience the elegance of signalling pathways or receptor binding at a conscious level, but somehow he _almost_ seemed to understand it. Things he couldn’t have had direct access to.

‘And… none of that helps you now, of course,’ Drake added ruefully. ‘Fix the problem first. Optimise later. Does it matter what type of living meat?’ he asked.

Riot knew an answer of ‘something that tastes like fear’ probably wouldn’t go down too well. **No,** it said instead.

A small smile curled the corner of Drake’s mouth. ‘Alright then.’ He took them out of the office and down to the laboratories. Riot liked the way Drake’s underlings smiled nervously and generally avoided looking him in the face. Riot couldn’t taste the fear without manifesting and getting closer, but it had learned what it looked like from riding other human hosts.

Drake stopped in a room filled with animals in cages. There were a few other humans standing around. Drake took one aside and told some lies about cutbacks to ar and dee budgets. Then he sent them away.

When they were alone again he spoke, this time out loud. ‘You can have whatever you want from this room. All the cages have the same passcode of zero-eight-six.’

A shiver worked its way through Riot’s membrane. The hunger had been getting to the point of pain and the constant wear of reminding itself _must not eat this host, must not eat this host_ , against _every_ instinct, had been more irritating than ingesting a corrosive. And now Riot was being presented with the sadistic test of trying to satisfy its roaring hunger without frightening its pathetic prey-species host. Maybe it could knock the host out, eat, and bring him back afterwards. Or maybe that would just scare him more. Riot didn’t want to reveal everything it was capable of.

 **This won’t be pretty,** Riot said slowly.

Drake snorted. ‘I’m not squeamish. I fed you and your people lab animals and humans before we even realised what you needed.’ 

Riot wavered. It could flip through Drake’s memories, his thoughts. There was a cold, precise intelligence at the centre of that mind. One that would carefully and meticulously consume whatever it needed to sate the burning curiosity and fuel the goal. Not bad for food, Riot admitted, but seeing this would be different. Even smart prey couldn’t control their own instincts.

‘Come on, if I start to feel faint, I’ll close my eyes.’ Drake was smirking and his amusement carried a mocking edge.

Riot wavered, broke. It was so hungry. **Warned you.**

It manifested, sending out tendrils from behind Drake’s shoulders to taste the air. The room stank of prey, especially as the animals became uneasy. Riot formed a head, a face, revealing its jagged teeth. Its pseudo-eyes could actually process light-signals now that it was riding such a visually-oriented host. It briefly considered taking over Drake, overlaying the weak human skin with its own flesh and feeding like that. That would feel good, natural, but would it be more or less disturbing for a host? Impossible to know. 

The animals were starting to make noise and some of the soundwave frequencies were unpleasant. Riot stopped overthinking and reached tendrils toward the cage with the loudest animal. Tempting to rip the cage open, but it used the passcode from Drake instead. The door swung open at a light tug and Riot snatched up the prey. The animal bit down on Riot’s slick flesh, but it was weak, couldn’t even fight properly. Riot supressed a sound of amusement and flung the animal toward its face. The crunch of bone between its teeth was deeply satisfying and the downtick of pain/danger/warning hunger chemicals was a blissful relief. There was no holding back now. Riot opened two, three cages at once and _fed_. It forgot about its host, about the mission, about anything but sating its ravenous appetite. 

Riot managed to exercise some restraint. Eventually. It hadn’t eaten all the animals. That meant there would be more for later. 

‘Incredible,’ Drake breathed. 

Riot went completely motionless. It was still manifesting outside its host and had forgotten that there was… an audience. It extended a few tiny cilia into Drake’s bloodstream, tasting the emotional chemistry as directly as it could. Failing to monitor its host’s reaction had been reckless, stupid. 

The tang of adrenaline from Drake, but no rich, savoury taste of fear. No sour disgust. The constant sharp curiosity was a background flavour that Riot mostly ignored. But overlaying that now… the adrenaline was fuelling excitement, wonder. Riot allowed itself to move again, weaving slowly through the air that could no longer hurt it.

It brought its face close to Drake’s and tried _looking_. Light was hard to turn into meaningful information. If Riot were in true symbiosis with the host it would have been able to leech off Drake’s over-developed visual processing cortex. But that level of mutualism was dangerous. To feel what the host felt, to share in the sensations, the emotions, the thoughts… 

Riot’s membrane contracted, thickening up, formed a stronger layer between itself and its host. Dangerous. Tempting. This is what happened when it couldn’t feed off the host and remind itself that it was riding food and nothing more. **‘You aren’t afraid.’**

‘No. Why would I be? Humans are pretty arbitrary about which animals are okay to eat and which ones aren’t. I don’t see much of difference myself. I still want to analyse what compounds you get from “fresh” meat so you aren’t reliant on living animals. That would be a game-changer. Keeping you supplied in the meantime will be a bit of a logistical challenge, but nothing that can’t be fixed with money.’

Riot’s head shifted slowly, trying to use its own limited visual processing. Easier to simply taste what Drake was feeling. This desire to look face-to-face must be something bleeding through the connection, something from the host. The idea made Riot uneasy. It was holding itself apart and shouldn’t be getting more than the faintest hints of Drake’s impulses. Riot wanted nothing more than to tell Drake that he _should_ be afraid. That he was nothing but meat and protection from this waste-planet’s hideously oxidising atmosphere. **‘Do your analysis. I’ll taste the compounds. Tell you which ones are good.’**

Drake smiled, his blunt, inferior teeth barely showing. ‘Glad to hear it.’ His head tilted slightly. ‘You really are extraordinary. All that power and speed. You’re like nothing we imagined.’

Riot stilled. It could feel the way Drake saw it, the sincerity behind those words. Then Drake reached out slowly and there was more than enough time for Riot to recoil or bite its host’s fingers off. Instead, it hung motionless in the air as Drake traced the edge of its face. His gaze was fixed, utterly intent, as he ran a fingertip down one of Riot’s teeth. Riot’s tongue swept out automatically to taste the intruding piece of its host. Drake shivered and a heartbeat later the sensation hit Riot through their link. 

Drake drew his hand back, that faint half-smile still on his face. ‘Sorry,’ he said, not sounding sorry at all. Riot growled softly and Drake’s next blink lasted just a little too long. ‘Well, if we’re done here, there’s still some paperwork to finalise about the rocket.’

 **‘Paperwork,’** Riot repeated.

‘The best way to ensure things run smoothly on the day of departure. Like you said, we can’t afford to raise suspicions.’

Riot didn’t deign to respond and instead drew itself back into Drake’s body, melting beneath its host’s warm skin.

Drake exhaled slowly. ‘You’ll let me know if you need anything else,’ he said, not quite a question. 

**Yes.**

Drake smiled.

The paperwork dragged and Riot drifted in a state that wasn’t sleep, but something close. It was full, sated, and its host wasn’t doing anything strange. Some time passed before Riot felt the gentle nudge of Drake’s awareness. It didn’t like the way Drake reached out to it. That automatic pull toward connection, symbiosis. The host couldn’t know what Riot was holding back, couldn’t even guess that it _was_ holding back. But if Drake found a way into Riot’s thoughts, its plans, that could compromise the mission.

It was an effort not to snap back and hurt the weak human mind that was currently groping around for a connection. **What?** Riot responded.

‘I’m done for tonight. The rocket should be fuelled and supplied before the week is out. I’ve managed to steamroll a dozen minor checks, mostly involving environmental matters and safety of the crew on the ground,’ Drake subvocalised. 

Riot signalled its approval with a release of the appropriate chemicals directly into Drake’s bloodstream. 

‘I usually take better care of my human assets, but with what you’ve told me about your people’s… plight, I understand why you want to push this through as soon as possible.’

Riot was only half-listening to Drake. **Is there anything more you can do today? If sleep is an issue, I can hold it back for a day or two without consequences to you.**

‘No. The key facilitators will be needing their own sleep. There’s only so much even money can do in cases like this.’

Riot didn’t care at all about the barter system on this planet, but it relaxed slightly knowing that at this point there was nothing either it or Drake could do for the mission. **Shower?** Riot asked.

Drake smiled one of his thin smiles. The accompanying chemical profile tasted better than the one Riot associated with the bigger, toothier smiles Drake gave in front of the cameras. Riot didn’t like the cameras, but it did like showers. It had experienced two since entering Drake and it was fond of the Earth ritual.

The notion of “cleanliness” didn’t hold meaning to a symbiote that was either in its natural form in a non-hostile liquid environment or living inside a host. What Riot liked was the sensation of lightly spraying water against its outer membrane. It wasn’t the same as submersion, but rather an in-between state. Not dry, unpleasant atmosphere, but not the crushing pressure of deep liquid either. It was also warm without being too hot and Drake put interesting chemicals over his skin that tasted unusual, but not distasteful.

Riot manifested during the shower, spreading itself thinly in the spaces around its host and rippling where the water touched it. It was careful not to deprive Drake of his share of the water spray. This was as close to forgetting about the mission as Riot got. Here it was free to bask in sensation. The washing Drake did was almost pleasant too. The chemicals glided across Drake’s skin beneath his hands. His nerves registered the sensation and Riot caught the edges of it too, without really focusing on what its host was doing. Then Drake went lower and…

 **‘What was that?’** Riot twitched hard beneath at the jolt of endorphins and positive feedback signals. Stupid question. Mammalian reproductive organs. Genitals. Cock. Riot had access to the words, several biology texts and Drake’s memories of sex. But flipping through those things wasn’t the same as tasting the sudden rush of pleasure chemicals along the entire surface of its membrane. Simple touch against the host body wasn’t usually so electric.

‘Arousal,’ Drake said. Good answer. Drake knew some of what Riot had access to, knew it wasn’t confused about the technicalities. ‘What do you think of it? Do your people have anything similar?’

Riot tried to resummon the sensation, but the pleasure had stopped when Drake’s hand had moved away from his genitals. **‘Nothing like that. Our chemical feedback loops are negative.’**

Drake hummed at a pleasant frequency. ‘Most human feedback loops are negative and survival oriented too. With one or two notable exceptions.’ Drake ran his fingers up the underside of his cock again and Riot shivered at the renewed sensation. ‘I’d rather deal with this than try to fall asleep with an erection, but I can hold off, if you’d prefer.’

Riot wavered. Holding itself back from connection was more difficult when the host was feeling such strong sensations. But it didn’t want to inconvenience Drake and undo all the hard work of appearing non-threatening and useful. It told itself that the chance to feel the pleasure again, even peripherally, wasn’t influencing its decision at all. **‘Don’t care. Do what you want. But not here with the water.’** That would have been too much. The pleasant rhythm of the water falling on its surface and the upwelling of positive feedback signalling from inside. Riot shivered again under the spray. Far too much.

There was a faint undercurrent of amusement from Drake again, buried beneath an overlay of musky-tasting arousal. ‘Alright. The bedroom it is.’ Drake finished showering quicker than usual, even skipping some of the steps where he’d add complex chemical structures to his skin and hair afterwards. Riot was a little disappointed with that. They tasted interesting.

Drake didn’t bother replacing his clothes and sprawled out on top of his bed. Riot had retreated back beneath his skin once he’d stepped out of the shower. It seldom manifested without a reason. Getting too used to being visible could compromise the mission. That would come later once the symbiotes had taken over this nothing planet.

Drake didn’t say anything to Riot, even with subvocalisation. He simply trailed a hand down his body and touched his cock with the tips of his fingers. Riot had access to Drake’s memories, knew that this wasn’t how he normally masturbated. 

The pleasure started slow, hormonal cues trickling into Drake’s bloodstream, moving through his cells and lighting up receptors. The chemicals hit Riot too, tingling at the tips of its cilia, starting interesting signal cascades. Drake had stopped his light, aimless touches, had wrapped his hand around his cock and started stroking. The feeling grew stronger as secondary chemical messengers amplified the initial rush. 

Riot shook as the sensations ran along its body, _through_ it. A feeling like hunger, but not quite, was hitting it from the outside. It found itself reaching out blindly, sampling more of the heady chemical cascade running through Drake. A wordless imperative slipped from it, moving back into Drake’s body. It wanted, _wanted_ and Drake…

‘What do you like?’ Drake asked breathlessly.

Stupid question. Riot didn’t do this, didn’t have the stupid wasteful _parts_ for something like this. Drake was stroking himself faster and another flood of positive feedback signals swept through the body. The cascade lit up seldom-used receptors all along Riot’s outer membrane. The sensation shivered through it, alien and _good_ and like nothing it had felt before. **Fighting. I like when they fight back,** Riot growled. **And it’s still not enough to stop me.** A second later Riot coiled around itself, practically trying to turn inside-out to prevent another outburst. The pleasure was compromising its thoughts, infecting it. Stupid to say something like that to prey, to _food_. To _admit_ its nature. It still needed Drake’s cooperation, couldn’t just take over…

Drake groaned louder, his hand working just as sleekly over his cock. ‘I don’t know if I could give you much of a fight.’ Riot could feel Drake’s hunger, like a wave that obliterated everything in its path. The feeling of craving was something so familiar that it resonated between them. ‘You’re magnificent, powerful beyond anything we thought organic life was capable of.’ 

Endorphins and oxytocin were flooding the body, pinging receptor after receptor across Riot’s form. It was swimming through pleasure and those _words_. The things Drake was saying, the _awe_ in his voice. **Yes. More.** Riot’s own words were a harsh grate. It wanted more, more of the pleasure, more of the worship from this infuriating and complex human.

‘I wouldn’t want to fight you,’ Drake rasped. ‘Give you whatever you wanted. You want what I want.’

In that moment Riot wasn’t thinking about their mutually incompatible plans for the Earth. All it was thinking about was the delicious chemical cocktail roaring beneath Drake’s skin and those entrancing words of surrender. Riot had never been in a host so willing to give in, to let itself be taken.

Riot stopped fighting the pleasure and unfurled itself through Drake’s body, sliding along the nerves and close beneath the skin. It basked and when even that wasn’t quite enough it manifested, seeping out through the skin to pool across Drake’s body. The sound Drake made was a very pleasing frequency. ‘Riot…’

Riot twitched and shivered at the sound of its name, feeling the rumble of it through Drake’s chest and in the harsh, oxidising air itself. Drake’s other hand pressed gently against the surface of Riot’s flesh. The heat emanating from Drake’s hand was a stark contrast to the air and Riot could taste the tang of his sweat. Drake was caressing it, a rhythmic pressure along Riot’s surface that felt almost as good as the heat and the hormones. ‘What can I do for you, what do you want, what makes you feel good?’ Drake demanded. 

This. This like nothing else before it. Riot could feel the desperation in Drake. The curiosity, ever present and all consuming, but something else beneath that, something that Riot couldn’t parse no matter how much it tried to taste that sharp, sweet, fizzing emotion. 

Riot manifested a face, showed its teeth and tongue and opaque eyes. Drake gasped, his pulse spiked and both his hands tightened, one over his cock, the other over Riot. No fear. Not a hint of that rich flavour. Just desire, arousal, _want_. **‘This. I like this. I feel what you feel.’** And it was true for once. Riot was barely holding back from the symbiosis. Its body oozed over every nerve, drinking in the heady rush of Drake’s body and mind. This host could be burning right now and Riot would feel every excruciating moment of it. It would be worth it, even. **‘You wouldn’t fight. Let me have–’** Drake’s hand _did_ something to his cock and Riot’s words were lost in a shriek too high for its host’s ears. 

‘Anything. Everything.’ Drake almost didn’t sound human. The words carrying undertones that Riot’s sensitive receptors captured out of the air.

Riot gave a soft roar. Yes. The body, the emotions, the thought. One entity, one purpose. _Symbiosis_. 

Their tendrils wrapped around their wrist and down their arm, pulling the bits of themselves flush together. They moaned, panting, drawing sweet deadly air into their lungs, tasting their own sweat against their membrane, the heady musk of their arousal. 

Slick, powerful tendrils fanned out over their heated skin and beneath it too, playing with the nerves on both sides of that fragile divide. A shudder worked its way through their body and they arched, writhing and twisting on the sheets. Their tendrils joined their hand over their cock. Working in perfect concert, they squeezed and undulated and stroked. Their legs pulled wider as they bucked up against the slick pressure. Waves of pleasure, infinite positive feedback. They could taste it on their tongue, along their membrane. An intoxicating mix of chemical pleasure that built and crested. 

They roared, screamed, as it overwhelmed them. Blood-warm fluid, rich with sugars and DNA, against their skin, against their surface, reabsorbed. Trembling across their body with nerve impulses flashing confusing signals up and back as their most precise, delicate cilia activated them for more pleasure, more sensation. Boneless, without structure, they sank back against the covers. Slick cool flesh pooling against their skin. Their lazy hands and tendrils stroked softly, reassuringly. They drifted.

Riot came back to itself with a start. It coiled around itself instantly, down-regulating receptors and cutting itself off from the morass of post-sex hormones it had been basking in. Too much, too close, dangerous, stupid. It had just slipped into the most self-obliterating symbiosis with a piece of fucking meat. With _prey_. And if Drake had caught even a glimpse of Riot’s mission…

‘Hey, are you alright?’ Drake’s voice. Drake’s hand still stroking over the surface of its flesh where it was coiled up as a tight mass on his chest. Drake. Riot. Him. It. Not them. 

**Yes.** It didn’t bother manifesting a mouth and communicated from the inside of the host’s body. The stroking felt good, both against Riot’s surface and in that buzzing satisfied part of the host’s mind. Drake liked the feel of Riot beneath his hand. There was only concern from Drake’s emotions, not realisation or horror. He hadn’t seen anything, then. 

‘Good.’ Some tension left Drake’s muscles. Riot hadn’t even noticed how strained the host had been in those few moments. It cautiously uncoiled a little, telling itself that it needed to relax too, or its reassurances wouldn’t be plausible. Its tendrils extended throughout Drake’s body again, allowing itself tiny tastes of the heady chemicals still lingering in Drake’s system. Just a bit was fine, wouldn’t compromise it.

Maybe it was alright to indulge. Sometimes. Hadn’t Riot managed to pull itself out of true symbiosis when it had wanted to? It was strong. Stronger than a sappy idiot like Venom. This was a good host that always tasted of curiosity and sometimes tasted of worship. Riot could get fear elsewhere, when it fed. Drake was more than happy to provide food, might even be all right with eating together one day. 

**Keep you,** Riot murmured, surprised to find that it meant it. As a leader, Riot could choose to keep the same host, choose to only eat externally. There would be talk, odd signalling, but no one would dare challenge its decision. Drake could be made to understand Riot’s goals. Could be persuaded that being host to a leader was good. Drake didn’t really _like_ other humans as far as Riot could tell. He’d give into Riot, give it whatever it wanted. That thought settled like a warm glow at the centre of Riot’s body.

‘Good.’ Drake tasted amused again. His hand on Riot’s body was firm and there was something almost possessive about it. ‘We’re going to change the world.’

 **Yes.** Riot hid its own amusement deep in the folds of its mind.

‘I’ll fix them. Whatever it takes.’ Humans. Drake must be talking about the humans. There was something slippery about the thought and Riot couldn’t quite get a grip on it. It was probably still distracted from the pleasure. There was no way a host could hide anything from _it_.


End file.
